Sensing the Airs: The Cultural Context for Breathing and Breathlessness in Uruguay

Wainwright, M.

Abstract

The sensory experience of breathing, particularly the sensation of breathlessness in the case of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), is a rich though understudied topic in medical anthropology. Fieldwork in Uruguay made it clear to me that to study the sensorial experience of breathlessness, I would also have to study the widely shared cultural conceptualizations and practices surrounding air, breath, and health. In this article, I illustrate ethnographically how the experience of breathing and breathlessness is closely tied to perceptions of air outside the body – in particular humidity, temperature change, wind, and contamination. In conceptualizing breath as the mechanism and air the medium for environmental embodiment, I bring together sensorial medical anthropology, anthropology of the body, and the anthropology of wind and climate. My findings, in light of similar findings across contexts, suggest that a body transformed by COPD is hyperperceptive and hypersensitive to changes in air.

Citation

Wainwright, M. (2017). Sensing the Airs: The Cultural Context for Breathing and Breathlessness in Uruguay. Medical Anthropology, 36(4), 332-347. https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2017.1287180

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 28, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Feb 7, 2017
• Publication Date: May 19, 2017
• Deposit Date: Feb 14, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 27, 2017
• Journal: Medical Anthropology
• Print ISSN: 0145-9740
• Electronic ISSN: 1545-5882
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 36
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 332-347
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2017.1287180
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1394422